Thursday, October 2, 2014

'Mhalifu' mwenye silaha apanda lifti na Obama

Report says armed contractor with violent criminal record got in the lift with the US president during Atlanta visit.

Published reports have revealed that US President Barack Obama rode
an elevator this month with an armed security contractor who had three
criminal convictions, a violation of Secret Service security protocols.

The Washington Examiner and the Washington Post
reported on Tuesday that the latest incident took place in an elevator
during Obama's September 16 visit to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta.

The latest embarrassment for the Secret Service, which protects the
president, comes after agency Director Julia Pierson took full
responsibility for a September 19 breach of the White House.

The Post said agents questioned the contractor and
discovered his criminal history after he refused to stop video recording
the president with a phone camera.

Agents did not know he was armed until a supervisor fired the contractor on the spot, and the man turned over his gun.

The Secret Service did not immediately respond to an email request for comment sent by the AP news agency.

On September 19, an intruder armed with a knife, jumped a fence and sprinted across the White House lawn, and managed to enter the presidential residence's East Room,
just minutes after Obama and his daughters left by helicopter from the
South Lawn, for the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland.

The Post also revealed that it took the Secret Service five
days before realising a man had fired shots at the White House in 2011,
while one of Obama's daughters was inside.

First Lady Michelle Obama was reported to be furious about the
incident which took place when she and her husband were out of town.

In all, at least seven bullets struck the upstairs residence of the
White House, fired from a car parked about 600 metres away across the
South Lawn.